ICC gives Israel, Palestinians until March to respond to war crime charges
The PA itself limited its complaints against Israel to the post June-2014 period.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBICC CHIEF PROSECUTOR Fatou Bensouda in The Hague earlier this year(photo credit: EVA PLEVIER/REUTERS)
The International Criminal Court Pretrial Chamber on Tuesday gave Israel and the Palestinians until March 16 to respond to war-crimes allegations directed at them by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.Bensouda then will have until March 30 to rebut any submissions by Israel and the Palestinians.Third parties can also file briefs by February 14.The ICC’s order did not give a schedule for when it will rule on the war-crimes issue.Bensouda’s December 20 decision to recognize a State of Palestine and to move forward against both Israel and Hamas led to outcries of bias from Israel and a campaign to isolate the ICC, while it led to praise from the Palestinian Authority.In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Bensouda said she had not decided if she would seek war-crimes charges against the IDF, and any war-crimes charges she seeks against Israelis relating to the settlement enterprise will only relate to settlements built after June 2014.The PA limited its complaints against Israel to the post-June 2014 period.However, Israel still views prosecuting settlements as a war crime as a massive show of bias, since it appears to ignore UN Security Council Resolution 242’s framework that Israel and the Palestinians need to resolve their own border disputes.
